the economic impacts of tourism on rural areas

the rapid and uncontrolled growth of tourism, that has influenced the economic foundations of rural economy, has caused different economic impacts and consequences in the rural areas of the central district of the city of nowshahr. the purpose of this study is to recognize and analyze the impacts of tourism in this area based on the principles of sustainable tourism and relevant theoretical bases. the research method used in this study is descriptive-analytic, utilizing objective and subjective data based on questionnaires administered to household heads and the rural settlers. in analyzing the data, parametric statistical tests such as pierson’s correlation test and nonparametric tests such as spearman’s correlation test and chi-squire were used. the results of this study indicate that tourism has brought positive consequences such as job creation for the youths, has increased income for the inhabitants, it has also brought negative economic consequences such as increased prices of goods and services in the tourism season, an increase in land price and the increase of living cost for the inhabitants and the excessive reliance of the rural economy upon tourism. so, the monopolization of rural economy through the dominance of the tourism and the inability of the tourism sector to establish an effective links with other economic activities and its inability to play a complimentary role, is in conflict with the principles of rural tourism. therefore, it seems that the continuation of such a process will pose some problems and challenges to the foundations of economic development of the rural areas under investigation in the long term.